


Wrapped Up In Books

by edgy_fluffball



Series: Wrapped Up In Books Series [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Caleb Gets Confident When He Has A Book, Cuddling, First Meetings, M/M, Mollymauk Is Illiterate, Online Friendship, Pre-Relationship, Reading, The Mighty Nein Are Out On The Town, awkward beginnings, book cafe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22104454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edgy_fluffball/pseuds/edgy_fluffball
Summary: Caleb has been chatting to MT for months without ever meeting in person. His online friendship has long since stopped feeling like just that. When he eventually meets MT, he is a little surprised by what he finds out about someone he has talked to for such a long time, already.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: Wrapped Up In Books Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1613974
Comments: 24
Kudos: 193





	Wrapped Up In Books

**Author's Note:**

> For my darling Percy!

_BookBoy: What? No! You shouldn’t assume such things about people._

_MT: i only told you because you promised not to judge_

_BookBoy: Excuse me, but I’m the one who told you about the whole thing in the first place!_

_MT: the only thing you told me was that you read educational smut what else was i supposed to conclude from that_

_BookBoy: I did not call it educational smut, that’s what you made of it. I told you I look for interesting reading material, that’s all._

_MT: you told me how many books you have there must be something adventurous amongst all of it_

_BookBoy: Adventurous doesn’t mean smutty, for goodness sake, Molly! I should really show you what good books are!_

_MT: you really should i really need some proper educating in that regard_

_BookBoy: Are you implying what I think you are?_

_MT: you tell me ;)_

‘Caleb, are you home yet?’ The door closed behind Nott as she hurled her bag into the corner, ‘I bear news from Jester and Fjord. They want to go out again. If you don’t want to join, you should start to come up with an excuse.’

Caleb closed his laptop and pushed himself away from his desk, ‘I will be sick.’

‘You will be there, if you don’t have a better reason to be away,’ Nott pointed a finger at him, ‘do we still have meat in the fridge?’

‘Did you finish it all yesterday?’

‘No.’

‘Then there should be meat in the fridge.’

Nott rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen. He heard the fridge open and pots and pans rattle as she got started on their dinner. A few minutes later, he had returned to his desk and opened his laptop again, returned to his chat and read the messages that had come in.

_MT: i m sorry_

_MT: did i cross the line_

_MT: you know i want to meet you and i visit a friend in sadash next week_

_MT: i mentioned that before i think_

_MT: please tell me if you dont think it would be a good idea for us to meet i just think we know each other so well it would be a shame if i never got to hug you properly_

‘Jester thought bowling would be a good idea, but so would roller skating and a pub crawl,’ Nott reappeared in the door frame, a piece of raw meat between her teeth, ‘Who are you talking to?’

She flopped herself down on a chair and grinned at him, ‘It’s the guy, isn’t it? The one who found your podcast? Such a weirdo, waxing lyrical about you reading fairy tales and discussing myths. When will you talk about goblin lore again?’

‘Whenever there’s time,’ Caleb grumbled and looked back to the laptop, ‘I won’t be joining you for the big night out.’

‘You won’t? Why?’ Nott crossed her arms, ‘You are not sick, I know that for a fact, and you also don’t have any other plans. I know that for a fact because I am your best friend!’

Caleb shot her a dirty look. His best friend, indeed. Her yellow eyes had spooked him out of his wits often enough when she decided to stare at him during the night, and their fridge was almost always empty because of her nocturnal cravings, almost all of them meat-related. His job at the library was hardly enough to cover both their expenses, which had led to her resorting to rats and whatever she could catch herself by the end of most months.

Caleb tried not to think about where she hung around when she left the flat for spontaneous hunting trips. Waking up to her pushing the window open and climbing into the living room with blood in the corners of her mouth, and her breath smelling a little stronger than usual was more than he had bargained for, initially. Then, he had come to accept even all the parts of her that only became apparent once he moved in with her.

‘Caleb, you still in there?’ She snapped her fingers in his face, ‘You wanted to tell me more about that person you are talking to all the time.’

‘What? It’s not all the time!’

‘Hey, let me be the judge of the amount of time you spent on your phone during the more recent months. You even started writing in bed in the evenings, rather than read. I noticed that, Caleb. You downloaded the app to be able to talk to him at work.’

‘I downloaded the app because it’s easier to operate than carrying my laptop everywhere.’

‘That only means you would still want to talk to him, no matter the medium. You like him!’

‘Don’t be silly, Nott.’

He typed out a quick answer into the box at the bottom of the website. For a moment, he hesitated, scanning his answer again and gnawing on his bottom lip. His finger hovered over the mouse.

‘I think Jester would be happy to give out relationship advice,’ Nott shrugged and sat down next to him again and chewed on another piece of meat, ‘what does he do again?’

‘He’s a singer and performer at a club in Trostenwald.’

Her curious eyes darted over to his workspace and the open laptop on the desk. Caleb tried to close it again with a swift motion but at the end of the day, she would always be the nimble one of them. Her finger hit the button first and the swooshing sound of a message sending filled the air between them.

‘Nott! What did you do that for, I wasn’t sure whether I should send that, yet,’ he shrieked and buried his face in his hands.

‘You should,’ Nott nodded, ‘I don’t even care what the message said, you have spent enough time talking to him to confirm an actual relationship. You must have talked online just as much as other couples in person.’

Caleb shook his head, trying to get a thought out of his head that had flared up in his mind. It was dangerous to think about the message Nott had just sent in his name.

_BookBoy: You didn’t cross any lines, we could probably meet then. If you really wanted to, that is._

‘We talk about the podcast and what I’m reading, mostly. He seems to really love books as much as me, that’s it. You are interpreting things into contexts that don’t exist,’ he crossed his arms and turned his chair around to face her with a stern look.

‘Anyway,’ she cleared her throat, fidgeting under his watchful eyes, ‘next Saturday night. We’re going out, if you don’t tell me why you can’t, at once.’

A new sound, the ringing of a bell, coming from the laptop, had Caleb spin around. He opened the chat again and read the six words printed the bottom of the page. As he read them again and again, he felt his breathing quicken.

_MT: name a time and a place_

‘Well, I can’t come,’ he managed to say, ‘turns out, I’ll have a date.’

With that, he closed the laptop. Nott avoided his eyes as he pulled up his nose, raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. She knew him well enough not to ask and pry anymore. If he decided to share more information, he would.

The only thing he needed her to do was to protest against his absence at their group gathering enough to let everybody in their group know how important his engagement. Caleb could not wish for a better excuse than one made up by his best friend to have an afternoon and evening to sit in the book café he had declared the safest space he knew and loved.

He was early, too worried about the consequences of the turn the chat had taken. They had skirted around an actual meeting long enough for Caleb to get comfortable with the thought of talking to a stranger, somehow just chatting had been enough for him to let his guard down with MT, whom he knew little about, beyond his username. He had introduced himself as Molly before going on a rant about how much he enjoyed Caleb’s weekly podcasts and just how amazed he was to find out about someone going into detail and explain connections between myths and fairy tales and why Zemnian fairy tales had the same roots as stories from the Menagerie Coast. Caleb had been too preoccupied with the euphoria of finding a kindred spirit in his ventures to think about the consequences in the long run.

When Molly first asked him if he wanted to meet, he had deflected with work schedules and time issues, changed the topic and hoped he would forget. Molly had proven to be stubborn. Their easy conversations and light banter, interspersed with playful insults and laughing at each other, was interrupted by questions dipping into a more personal context every now and then.

Caleb had refused to admit it to himself but deep down, he was curious about the person he had spent hours talking to. After all, their conversations had moved on from exclusively books and stories to every day topics and whatever was on their minds. He had told him about Nott eating them out of house and home and Molly had suggested jerky to saturate her snack appetites. It had worked.

His phone buzzed with several messages. The first one was from Nott, a selfie of her with the group at their pre-drinks location, her little arm outstretched to get all of them into the frame. Jester seemed to be waving, her hand nothing but a blur, covering Beau’s face. Fjord laughed at something Caduceus whispered into his ear with a questioning look and Yasha was too busy staring on her phone screen to notice the photo being taken. It was a picture typical for their group and Nott followed it with another message, telling him to feel free to join them, if the meeting did not go according to plan.

The other messages were from Molly. Caleb opened the app and scrolled down within the previous messages sent.

_MT: another five minutes_

_MT: sorry_

_MT: dont be mad_

_MT: damn i did not want to be late_

Despite his usual punctuality and need for everybody else to be punctual, Caleb thought the half-rambling Molly had sent him was almost endearing. He leaned back into his chair for a moment before getting up and grabbing a few books of the shelves. Amongst them were a copy of _The Trials and Tribulations of_ _Scarry the Halfling_ , a children’s book he had read several times but revisited whenever he needed some light reading to distract himself, a couple of folk story books and two books that looked promising but unfortunately, in no way magical. The half-elven waitress set down a steaming cup of tea in front of him he had ordered before. There was no use in waiting with his order.

The door opened a few minutes later. He looked up curiously. Immediately, he recognised the silvery jewellery dangling on a moon earring. It had been something memorable about the tiny profile picture Molly had used on the platform. Now, the earring was easier to spot, nestled against dark hair and purple skin. Caleb felt his jaw hit the floor.

During all the time they spent talking to each other, he had never asked which race Molly belonged to. It seemed like something irrelevant at the time and he wanted to avoid misunderstandings, race simply did not matter to him. How could it, his best friend was a goblin, after all.

What he saw at the counter, however, was a Tiefling with beautiful, softly bent horns that protruded from under shiny, well-kept, wavy hair and bright, friendly eyes that scanned the room for any sign of the person he had come to meet. Caleb wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. This person, shining and glittering in the late afternoon sun, was everything a younger Caleb could have wished for and the Caleb inside the book café was afraid of meeting in person. He had barely been prepared to deal with a situation as unpredictable as meeting an online friend was, anyway.

‘I can’t do this, there is no way I can have such bad luck,’ he murmured to himself and tried to hide behind the stack of books on his table by slouching on his chair, ‘not in ten years will I be equipped to talk to someone like that in person without making a fool of myself. That’s just unfair!’

He opened one of the books on a random page and began to read. With all the thoughts circling in his head, however, he was not able to concentrate on the content as much as he usually would, absorbing the words and every ounce of meaning, keeping it in his brain for all eternity. Every few seconds, his eyes flicked back and forth between the book in front of him and the Tiefling at the counter. He smiled and laughed, joking with the waitress as he ordered a drink and paid her for it.

Then, he turned around, gaze firmly set on Caleb. For a moment, he seemed to squint and take a closer look at him, the question open in his face. His gaze moved on, to the books on the table and a smile appeared on his face.

‘You are true to what you told me. BookBoy, am I right?’

All Caleb managed was a nod. He tried to scoot away from him a little, move the chair he sat in to edge it around the table to have more space in between them. Molly grinned and pointed at the chair opposite from him.

‘May I?’ He pulled the chair closer, around the table and towards Caleb, ‘I’m so sorry you had to wait, I could kick myself, all this time I waited to meet you in person and the moment I want to leave from my friend’s place, she calls me and screams at me, something about me having to join her and her friends because they’re having a great time. I couldn’t get her to hang up and then I couldn’t find my coat in her mess.’

‘You’re not wearing a coat,’ Caleb pointed out, one eyebrow raised.

‘I know, I didn’t want to waste any more time looking for it, who knows when I would have found it. Worst case scenario, you decide to leave because you think you’ve been stood up. I would not want that.’

The elven waitress came over and set down a steaming cup in front of Molly who thanked her with a beaming smile and lifted it up to his mouth to take a sip. His eyes stayed on Caleb the entire time, even after he had set down the cup again. His cheeks were deeply dimpled when he smiled and there were lines around the dark red of his eyes that could not be attributed to age but rather a cheery disposition and a taste for laughing. Caleb felt the dark circles around his eyes become deeper and the lines of worry around his eyes and mouth deepen. The burden of his everyday worries had settled in his expression, he knew that well enough.

‘I didn’t leave, though,’ Caleb fidgeted on his chair, ‘I love this place.’

‘I see,’ Molly cocked his head a little, ‘and you got busy, what have you got there?’

Caleb noticed the way he bridged between topics, starting them on a topic they both knew they had much to say about. Within minutes, he had pushed the books over the table for him to take another look at the covers, Molly did not look at them but he listened as Caleb talked, summarised plots and characters, went into detail with storylines, character development and the unnecessary details he knew because he had committed them to his memory by default. His eyes stayed on Caleb, not budging, even when he accidentally knocked over a few books. Caleb went beet red and dove under the table to retrieve them.

‘Hey Caleb,’ Molly appeared on the other side of the table leg, handing him one of the books, ‘no need to hide from me.’

Caleb shot up against the table top, hitting his head. Rubbing the spot where he would, without a doubt, walk away with a bump on his forehead, he slid back into his chair. Molly followed his motion.

‘Molly-‘

‘Caleb-‘

‘Sorry.’

‘Sorry.’

The silence between them was back and Caleb, seeing Molly struggle for words, decided to take a leap of faith, ‘How is it going with your job? You mentioned a re-opening.’

‘Yes, the club is opening again. We have another two weeks of rehearsals before we get going,’ Molly waved about with his hand, ‘you should come to the opening. Now, that we know each other in person, I think we unlocked a lot of opportunities.’

‘You have a point,’ Caleb nodded, ‘when are you leaving again?’

‘I still have a few of days in town, it was a question of getting a fast connection back to Trostenwald. Apparently, I only get that on two days per week, and not when I want it. For the moment, I am still holed up at my friend’s place when she’s at uni.’

Caleb nodded along, knitting his brow, ‘You can always come to the library and read a little. We have plenty of books you wouldn’t find in bookstores, anymore. Plus, it’s really cosy and a nice place to sit in silence.’

Molly shrugged with an easy grin, ‘I’ll be fine, come on, you wouldn’t want me to show up at your work space.’

‘It wouldn’t be a problem,’ Caleb started to anxiously scratch his forearms, ‘I could find some books about things you’re interested in. You don’t even need to be registered in Zadash to be granted access, I could fill in a guest form for you.’

‘Thank you, Caleb. Honestly, I appreciate it but it won’t be necessary. I wouldn’t want you to spend your working time like that for me,’ Molly sipped his drink, a thick, dark hot chocolate.

Caleb felt his imagined reveries and pipe dreams pop and burst. He tried not to let it show but talking to Molly had come with certain thoughts and maybe wishes, even, if he had to be honest. From the moment Molly told him how much he enjoyed the podcast, and listening to his thoughts about the books he reviewed, Caleb had had an image in his mind. It had taken nothing more than a rainy afternoon, a book from the library and his beat-up armchair to conjure up the idea of shared reading time, curled up with drinks and books, sharing a space but not necessarily talking to each other. It had been an introvert’s dream.

‘That’s okay,’ he stuttered, ‘yes, it’s alright. I didn’t want to impose or anything.’

‘You didn’t,’ Molly sighed, fiddling with his cup on the saucer, ‘I should probably tell you now, come clean before the awkwardness of talking in person gets between us and makes it impossible to continue this.’

‘What? What is it?’

Molly sighed and leaned forward in his chair. He toyed with a single strand of hair that curled into his eyes from behind his horn, wrapping it around a finger. Caleb noticed the nail polish, glossy and thick, mirroring the surroundings.

‘I think - I’d like to think that I know you a little. We’ve been talking for months now and I think we could come to form something of a bond. You intrigue me, Caleb, I want to know every detail about you and I want you to know me in the same way. I want to share something with you. And given the circumstances, I better be upfront about it. My past relationships, both platonic and romantic, have sometimes been tainted by me keeping a secret. I was not able to muster up the courage before with others but this time it feels already too important.’

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and set it on the table between them, ‘It’s so clear to see that books are important to you. Not just your job or the podcast, you love reading, don’t you? You must be one of these people who have a whole ritual around sitting down with a good book, drinking tea and disappearing completely in a fantastical world, you must be.’

Caleb nodded along, not yet sure what Molly was trying to convey, ‘I tend to do that, yes. It’s a very pleasing feeling.’

‘Yes, I get that with the audiobooks and podcasts I listen to,’ Molly actively avoided his gaze now, Caleb was sure of it.

‘Are you alright, Molly? Is something wrong?’

‘Nothing. It’s something I account to, something I have struggled with for some time, but never got to change because of my upbringing,’ he cleared his throat, ‘Caleb, I can’t read, never learned it, foster families and calling a travelling circus home will do that to you. I simply never got the education all you smart people got, we never bothered with schools. My dad showed me how to write my name, at some point, if I needed to sign something. Not that I know how to read anything I would have to sign so it’s still pointless. I listen to audiobooks instead of possessing actual ones; I never really know what it’s going to be about, except for when people tell me something about them and show me the cover so I can find them again. I only started to listen to your podcast because my best friend told me about it. Whenever we text, I use the voice-to-text-option, basically dictating everything into my phone, I don’t even know if it works but my phone reads out your replies to me. It’s not something I’m embarrassed about, I am just sick of the reactions I got in the past, so I figured I would be upfront about it this time ‘round.’

His eyes were defiant when he finally looked up, finished his rant and met Caleb’s gaze again. There was something in them, burning brightly, hidden behind the careful distance that spoke of anger and disappointment he carried with him. Caleb wanted to tell him that it was fine, that he was a little surprised but could understand why Molly wanted to tell him right away, especially with past negative reactions. He wanted him to know that he would never frown upon him for illiteracy, or anything, would not pass judgement over somebody he felt connected to in the same way he felt with him. He had a lot of words in his mind, he always had, but could not get them out.

He tried his best. After stammering around for a few moments, whilst feeling his skin heat up again under Molly’s watchful gaze, he managed to stutter, ‘We have audiobooks in the library, too. Both digital and on CDs.’

Molly had obviously waited for an answer, anything out of him but what he said seemed to take him by surprise. He opened his mouth, a retort formed already but he hesitated, his hand falling back onto the table limply. Caleb looked him straight in the eye, determined to remain firm.

‘Is that a joke, are you taking the piss? Wait,’ Molly slumped on his chair a little, ‘You are serious about this, aren’t you?’

‘I’m Zemnian,’ Caleb answered, surprised by the unsure laughter accompanying the words, ‘we do not joke. Honestly, why would I treat you as anything lesser than before? We enjoy stories in different forms, and folk memory, oral tradition, word of mouth, they are essential to the way we understand culture! It is the original medium and as such valuable to every living, breathing thing. Where would we be, if no one ever had told the stories and fairy tales?’

Breathing hard, he slammed his hand down on the table. The cups danced on the surface, a few drops of tea spilled between them and left a wet pattern of drops behind. Molly flinched but seemed relieved to hear him express some sort of understanding for his situation.

Caleb hated to see him insecure about the reaction he had expected from it, it seemed out of character for the person he had chatted with, the person he had thought to thrive with other people around, a peacock, as colourful as a rainbow. During all their conversations he had seemed sure of himself, flirtatious and unapologetic in a way that Caleb had secretly adored for the duration of their contact. He hated knowing that somebody had hurt him, had made him feel bad for something, anything. It made him long to find those who had disrespected him, pin them down and put the fear of death in them for making him uncomfortable. Some time, he would further ask him about it but for the moment, he found himself reaching over the table in a moment of unexpected bravery, taking Molly’s hand and squeezing it.

‘Molly! Enjoying literature and stories is not equivalent with reading. We could still, at some point, you could come to the library and listen to all the audiobooks and radio plays we have there, borrow them - I could get them for you, even, audiobooks are expensive, if you buy them.’

‘That’s right,’ Molly said quietly, with a smile, ‘gods, Caleb! You really are something, huh? Passionate, at the very least, and quite special. Your podcast made me think I could get back into literature, listening to the way you made stories, novels, books accessible made me so happy. I can’t really believe a bookworm like you would understand and be so accommodating about it.’

Caleb grinned at him, getting a grin back. For a moment, silence fell again but it was a more comfortable silence than before. Molly moved on his chair, picked up his cup again and took another gulp. It was only when he set it back down that Caleb realised he still held his hand. He had to force himself to keep calm in order to not drop it onto the table.

‘You know, there is one other option, if you ever came back to Zadash,’ he cleared his throat, carefully tracing Molly’s fingers and the edges of his nails.

‘Why wouldn’t I come back to Zadash?’

‘I have no idea,’ Caleb swallowed, ‘just, if you wanted-‘

‘You could come to Trostenwald to see the opening of the club, my best friend is going anyway, she has the means to travel,’ Molly objected, ‘just, you know, throwing that out there.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Caleb felt his hands start to shake as he voiced what had come to his mind a hot second ago, ‘I just thought, I just thought of a third option that could be interesting. It would be interesting to me, I know as much because it’s books but if you don’t want it would be understandable. It really is nothing more than a thought but I could read to you.’

Before Molly could say anything in response, both their phones began to ring. Caleb groaned in annoyance, recognising Nott’s personalised ringtone.

‘It’s my roommate-‘

‘My best friend, I really should-‘

They both lifted their phones up, smiling at each other apologetically, and accepted the calls.

‘Nott?’

‘You have to come, please, we’re having so much fun,’ Caleb could tell she was drunk, her voice was nothing short of a drawl, ‘Yasha is inviting a friend of hers who’s like, a party animal. You have to come, Caleb!’

‘I don’t know, Nott, ‘I’d rather stay in town with Molly.’

‘That’s weird you know,’ Nott roared, ‘Yasha’s friend is called Molly, too! You should bring him along and we could go to a club or the tavern.’

‘Honestly, Nott-‘

‘No back talk,’ his best friend cut him off, aided by Jester who yelled into the phone from the side, ‘get yourself over here and have a drink to loosen up!’

Caleb looked over the table, trying to see what Molly was talking about to his friend, and seemingly, he felt similarly. He caught his eyes and for a moment, it looked like he rolled them, pupil less red giving away few pointers as to what their movement was actually like. He looked annoyed enough as an unintelligible voice screamed at him through the phone.

‘Yes, I know I have to be grateful you let me sleep at your place but would it hurt too much to actually sleep? I came to Zadash to take a break,’ Moll sighed into the phone, ‘yes, I know you told me about your friends here and I would love to meet them but I have the - I’m still with the guy I told you about. Yes, BookBoy. No, no Yash, it’s not - it’s not a date!’

Caleb felt his cheeks heat up again. Molly still smiled at him, goofing with the phone pressed to his ear. He mouthed something that he could not read off his lips, Caleb squinted at him with an amused shake of his head. Then, he furrowed his brows, realising something Molly had said.

‘Yash?’

‘The friend I’m staying with,’ Molly replied, turning the phone away for a moment, ‘Yasha, she’s the one who is out with friends tonight.’

‘Yes,’ Caleb pressed through clenched teeth, ‘my friends. Molly, Yasha is meeting my friends tonight. Your friend’s friends are my friends, if we go meet them, you will meet both her and my friends. Oh gods, it’s turned awkward. I never connected the dots, she told us of her best friend, the colourful one who could sing and entertain masses. She mentioned you went on weekly benders, regularly woke up in someone else’s beds and didn’t settle for anything.’

Caleb felt his lungs deprive him of air for a moment as his breathing quickened and his brain went into overdrive. It seemed too surreal, the way he remembered every single word Yasha had ever mentioned about her friend in Trostenwald did not overlap with what Molly had told him over months and the picture he had gotten from meeting him, at all. He tried to spot a giveaway in the way he carried himself the moment the words spilled from his lips but all he got out of Molly was a hushed, hurried farewell into the phone and a knowing grin over the table.

‘That happened. Once or twice. Truth is, you can’t live life as if there are no consequences, not forever. I might not think about the future as much as others but even I cannot pretend like there aren’t a few things I would actually enjoy quite a bit in the long run,’ Molly put his phone away, ‘I think they are too far gone and drunk already for us to enjoy their company, tonight. Not, after I got a taste of how nice it feels to finally meet you in person and when I feel I could spend the same time over again learning even more about you.’

Caleb swallowed down the excitement at these words. Their cups were empty anyway and ever since Molly had been deprived of the possibility to give an answer, he had wanted it even more. Every second passing seemed to painfully stretch and lengthen itself as they waited for the other to say something.

Eventually, Molly stretched with some theatrics, winked at him and yawned a little, ‘I won’t enjoy my best friend coming back out drunk. If only there was a place in Zadash I could retire to. If only there was a kind soul who’d let me crash at his place and maybe got involved in some cuddly shenanigans.’

‘Molly, you can hardly expect us to - that’s the last thing I would ever think about,’ Caleb jumped out of his chair and tugged his scarf tighter around his neck, ‘I don’t think it would be a good idea, we’ve only just met in person, and as much as I appreciate your company, I could not-‘

He found Molly’s eyes again, looking for something that would explain how he had jumped so far ahead, leaving behind their new friendship. Instead of an explanation, Caleb discovered a mischievous grin that seemed only brightened by his own distress.

‘Oh,’ he felt himself deflate a little, ‘you were joking.’

‘All in good humour,’ Molly agreed, resting his chin on his propped up hands, ‘since you know Yasha, however, I’m inclined to trust you with more than my coffee order and an amicable talk. You mentioned something earlier and I never got to answer you.’

Caleb grasped his tea cup to busy his hands. Momentarily forgetting that he had emptied it, he lifted it to his lips, thus obscuring his face a little in case what Molly said next was not what he hoped for.

‘Caleb, I would love for you to read to me. I would love to visit Zadash again and come to the library whilst you work, I would love to listen to audiobooks you’d pick for me. I can’t think of anything more exciting,’ he took Caleb’s hand in his, the one not busy pretending to hold a cup of tea.

Caleb almost dropped it and felt the hairs in his neck rise, their prickling sensation made him shudder under Molly’s touch. He allowed himself a small smile.

‘Although,’ Molly added, pondering, with his brows knit together, ‘I wouldn’t be opposed to a little cuddling.’

They packed up, Caleb returned the stack of books to the worn shelves under Molly’s watchful eyes who followed his hands as they shelved one book after the other with practised, nimble movements. When he turned back around, Molly seemed almost awestruck in the way he moved to the side a little, making room for him in the narrow hallway between the book room and the café.

‘I never knew shelving books could look so serious, almost like a dance,’ he said, his voice hardly more than a whisper.

Caleb shrugged, ‘I never thought about it that way but you might be right. It’s the quickest way to do it, and once you know where certain books belong, it’s merely a question of practise and repetition.’

Molly followed him out of the café. The evening had progressed and the sky had darkened a lot since they had first come together. Caleb led the way towards the flat he shared with Nott, looking to his side every few minutes, as if to check whether Molly was still there and had been serious about his suggestion.

A few streets down from the house, Molly got his phone out again. He opened an app, touched a profile picture Caleb recognised as Yasha’s and lifted the phone to his mouth.

‘Hi I’m going home with Caleb full stop. Turns out there really is only one nerd in Zadash called Caleb who loves books full stop. You dummy could have saved me a lot of nerves exclamation mark!’

He turned back around to Caleb with a grin, ‘Now she knows. And yes, that’s how I text.’

Caleb unlocked the house door, ‘She knows, they all know. At least, we don’t have to come clean about anything. We are on the second floor to the right.’

The flat was dark and silent before he switched on the light in the living room. They took off their shoes and Caleb hung up his coat before moving on. Nott’s most recent attempts to choose one of her dresses for the evening were still strewn about on the sofa and there was a bowl with some kind of jerky on the table.

‘Those must be the traces of the goblin roommate you mentioned,’ Molly stepped into the room behind him and shook his hair out, ‘would you please let her know that she has amazing dress sense?’

‘I’ll be sure to mention it,’ Caleb set down his bag next to the big armchair in the living room, ‘I really should tidy up in here before we sit.’

‘Oh don’t worry, I’ll spend the next days at Yasha’s with all her gym gear taking up way too much space,’ Molly sat down in the armchair, careful not to upset Nott’s things, ‘Well, that’s a lot of books!’

Caleb tended to leave books where he had finished them. There were books in stacks next to the table, the armchair under the sofa and behind the cupboard, books on the window sill and on top of the wardrobe. Once, Nott had found a book between plates in the cupboard that had found its way there after Caleb finished it over cooking lunch.

‘Are you still serious about me reading to you?’ Caleb regarded one of the stacks close to the armchair, almost exclusively made up of his favourites.

‘Sure!’ Molly beamed at him, ‘do you have a favourite book? I would love to know which one is your favourite!’

He seemed eager enough. Caleb picked up the book at the top of one of the bigger stacks and cleared his throat, showing the cover to Molly. It did not carry a title, only showed a colourful imagine etched into the leather cover, flames licking up against the top, a burning hand in the middle and a crying moon overlooking the whole scenery.

‘It’s called _The Asylum_. I must have read it often enough for it to fall apart numerous times but fortunately, I know a librarian who specialises in the care and restauration of well-loved books. So far, I could always save it. Every time I start it, I get sucked in again, it never fails to keep me entertained, the twists are just genius and written in a way that make them dreadful yet enjoyable because they make you wonder and feel for the characters.’

Caleb flailed with his arms to further make his point, striding around the room, kicking things out of the way. Then, because what else should he do when reading to one person only, he sat down on the armchair armrest, pulled up his feet and scooted closer to Molly until he was half in his lap, half pressed against his side.

He felt Molly take in a sharp gasp of air as he settled and got comfortable but he remained silent as Caleb opened the book on the title page, thumbed past it and stopped with the headline that read ‘ _Chapter One_.’

‘ _If it had been anything like the stories, the weather would have reflected the dire circumstances of the day, with rain pouring from heavy, dark clouds that suffocated the horizon and kept the sun in her prison, preventing her from rising to plant the seed of hope in the hearts of those who were in need of it as they faced a fate pitiful and desperate enough to move the skies and make them weep for them. As it was, however, the sun shone bright and warm on the procession, birds sang their carefree songs in the fully bloomed, green tree tops of the park and garden around the old, looming structure of the Asylum as the new inhabitants were brought there from the court and hospital that had declared them no longer redeemable of the ghosts and spirits dictating their everyday life, immune to the voice of reason in their heads and the calming influence of worried people who watched as they went away deeper into their own minds. It was on this bright, warm morning that the Asylum gained an inmate further gone than others and closer to sanity than most at the same time, as he was led through the high gates that shut them off, away from everything normal they had known until then. He was one of many, unremarkable in the way he shuffled amongst them, clad in robes without knots, buttons or metal to keep them from doing harm to themselves or anyone else, unremarkable as he stepped over the threshold of the building that had seen so many come and few go with their head held upright. As he stepped over the threshold, he looked up to the sky for a last time and when his foot hit the floor on the inside, a single tear ran down his cheek._ ’

As Caleb read, he tried to convey just how much the book meant to him and show Molly what it was about it that made him pick it up again and again. It was by far not the happiest book he owned, it hurt and made him want to hug his friends, assure them he was there for them, no matter what trials they faced.

He had finished the second chapter, the tragic hero had been left in his cell to stare out of the tiny window he had there, when he felt something sneak around his neck. Molly’s finger, careful and skilled, pressed into his scalp, tangling his hair, stroking his head a little. Caleb felt his head fit in his palm, felt himself being cradled and held as he read on.

The emotional toll of the book seemed somewhat lessoned as he lay in Molly’s lap, Molly’s hand in his hair, Molly’s other hand intertwined with his, the one that did not hold the book. Molly had moved and adjusted a little and sat with this chest pressed to Caleb’s back, warm and present in the middle of cold cells and the solitude the book described so fittingly.

Molly’s fingers drew circles into his scalp and calmed him down a little as the first emotionally straining scene came up. He listened intently, too, gasping at all the right points, showing his interest openly in his expressions. Caleb felt validated in his reading and let his head rest on Molly’s shoulder.

He did not need to raise his voice, sitting close to Molly meant that he would still understand everything, even a whisper, admitted under the cover of a breather between chapters. Molly had pretended not to hear it but Caleb had felt him tense and relax, relief taking over a moment later and the arm that had found its way around his waist tightened a little to hold him in place.

A few chapters later, and Molly could hardly hide his yawns anymore. He pressed his face into the crook of Caleb’s neck and he felt it still. He closed the book and set it aside carefully, placing it on another stack.

‘You need to sleep,’ he said softly, ‘the book won’t run away.’

‘But I liked having you read to me,’ Molly argued haphazardly, ‘It’s a good feeling to imagine someone wants to do that for me.’

Caleb nestled his head against his shoulder, ‘I will read to you again, either you come here, or I to Trostenwald, or I read to you on the phone. Does that sound better?’

‘No,’ Molly complained, ‘how would I hold you, then?’

Caleb ignored his heart beating faster at the question, he cleared his throat and shrugged carefully, ‘You are here for a few more days. You will have to meet the others, once they have gotten rid of their hangovers and I want to see how wild you get when you have fun like that.’

He blushed again, violently, ‘I just mean, if you wanted to read like this again, we’ll have the possibility to do so. I enjoy it a lot.’

Molly smiled at him, eyes deep with fatigue. Caleb helped him up and towards the sofa. He transferred Nott’s clothes to the armchair and helped Molly lie down on the pillows and cushions. From his room, he got another blanket that he wanted to spread out over him. Molly held his phone out to him, a message from Yasha open on the screen, bleary through tired eyes.

‘ _Nott says hello, she’ll stay with me tonight. Tell Caleb to give you his bed, Nott wants you to sleep there_ ,’ he read out, ‘those two will never stop meddling!’

‘I like the sofa,’ Molly yawned, eyes almost falling shut, ‘next time, I’ll insist on sharing your bed.’

Caleb could not fight down the wide grin spreading on his face, ‘Good night, Molly.’

‘Good night. Thank you for being understanding, and for reading to me.’

Soft, purple fingers captured his hand and pulled it towards his mouth. Molly pressed his lips to the back of his hand, letting his fingers caressing his skin.

Caleb was still beet red when he slipped into his own bed, mind busy with the image of the Tiefling in the living room that seemed like all his dreams come true. He would do a podcast episode on audiobooks, reading and speech-to text, he promised himself before drifting off. And he would keep Molly around, read to him ore, maybe finish the whole book in that way.

He had the feeling something big could happen between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Say Hello on my [Critical Role blog](https://calebs-coat-collar.tumblr.com/)!


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